Call for 'sixth caliphate' alarms Tunisian liberals

Sabtu, 19 November 2011 16:21

The Islamist politician likely to become Tunisia's first democratically elected prime minister has alarmed liberals and secularists by claiming the arrival of the "sixth caliphate," a controversial term for a Muslim empire.
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Hamadi Jebeli, secretarygeneral of Ennahda, the moderate Islamist party which romped to victory in last month's elections, told a rally in the city of Sousse: "My brothers, you are at a historic moment in a new cycle of civilization, God willing. We are in sixth caliphate, God willing."

Party officials, who have spent months insisting they wanted to pursue secular democratic politics rather than an international Islamist agenda, were forced on the defensive after his comments were posted on the Internet.
The left-of-centre, secular Ettakatol party, which came third in the vote, suspended talks with Ennahda over forming a government.

"We thought we were going to build a second republic with our partner - not a sixth caliphate," Khemais Ksila, a senior member, said.

Ennahda's other prospective coalition partner, the centre-left and secular Congress for the Republic, did not follow Ettakatol's lead, perhaps soothed by a deal making its leader, Moncef Marzouki, interim president.
The term "caliphate" refers to a governance system based on Islamic law as formerly used by successive Muslim empires.

It is a sensitive term in Arab politics, due to its associations with extremist groups like al-Qaida - and especially in Tunisia where it is promoted by Hizb-ut-Tahrir, the radical Salafi movement.

Source : montrealgazette.com